Judge gives UAH professor Pakhomov 45 years for killing wife

Michael Mercier / The Huntsville TimesFormer University of Alabama in Huntsville physics professor Andrew Pakhomov is led back to jail after being sentenced to 45 years in prison for killing his wife, Yelena Zakin.DECATUR, AL. - Andrew Pakhomov, the University of Alabama in Huntsville physics professor who killed his wife and dumped her body in the Tennessee River, was sentenced to 45 years in prison here today.

Circuit Judge Sherrie Paler sentenced Pakhomov shortly before 11 a.m. as two rows of friends and family, including some who had traveled from his native Russia, watched in court.

A circuit court jury found Pakhomov guilty after a weeklong trial in August of killing his wife, Yelena Zakin, and dumping her body in the river here weighed down by large rocks in a backpack.

Pakhomov pleaded not guilty. His attorneys said they will appeal.

Paler adjourned court briefly before reconvening to hear a motion from defense attorney Robert Tuten for a new trial.

How much time Pakhomov will serve depends upon the state Department of Corrections, Tuten said. He could have been sentenced to life in prison.